Discussion: EOC in Portugal failures

There have been many failures related to maps, courses, etc. that matter to athletes. And of course, those are the biggest mistakes.

However, there are also mistakes that affect spectators. Generally the quality of this event for a remote spectator is at so low level that I have not seen in recent years. Web page often is overloaded and doesn't open. Live results don't update. Live audio failing all the time. GPS tracking tool not as good as I'm used to. Etc., etc.

I mean - use standard tools that are well tested in practice. IOF should specify which tools they approve as good. Just like with punching systems - there are 2 systems which are allowed. If good systems don't exist, IOF organizes their development and every organizer uses them. Would be much more consistent, reliable and cost effective. You don't have to re-invent the wheel for each event.

As for handling website traffic - use reliable services that can scale.

Strange issues also in the men's relay:
https://twitter.com/gpsseurantanet/status/45637351...

12hrs to plan long distance.... Nailed it

Just carrying wrong gps, so no forking errors.

In professional sports (orienteering is just trying to be) there is a divided responsibility. It would be great if someone classify / all mistakes / why went wrong / what can be done to prevent this type of mistake in the future / and who make it and was responsible by the plan (organizers / sub-contractor / event adviser / IOF sport director).

I think IOF is well aware that they need to standardize tools for organizers so every organizer could hire a reliable service providers to manage all the information for spectators in the same way. I remember WOC2010 that Norwegians said that this should be a high priority. In the meantime they are also spending money on conferences and political goals which seems to have a high priority within IOF. If IOF doesn't have money to fix the product nothing else matters? Most of the organizers are not able to provide this standard which was set by the IOF. They are trying to act as a service provider and they probably have an agenda (?) but I don't know what they have done in the last years that works today and organizers could classify as indispensable help from IOF if you want to organize better event.

How on earth did they do the Long Distance in 12 hours??

And, if they really pulled it off, then this reinforces my friend Bill's position (which I definitely do not share ;-) that it is a waste of time to plan things in advance because things could change at the the last minute requiring you to re-do your work. He believes in waiting till the very last minute so that you optimize your volunteer hours. (I hate it when he gets more ammo for his argument ;-)

"How on earth did they do the Long Distance in 12 hours?? "
they played 'join the dots'

Ah, that makes sense.
(I've had to do that myself at a Canadian Champs when a big section of the map suffered massive tree blow-down a couple of days before the event.)

@IOFOrienteering need to read this. +1
http://www.evajurenikova.com/index.html

Well said.

I imagine that the planner and mapper (I think they are the same person in fact) knew the area very well before replanning. Had they sat down to do the first planning 12 hours before the race it would most likely not have gone well.

Who's hosting the next EOC?

Maybe they should hold it in the US.

Maybe US/Canada could start by holding a W-Cup series?